The 75th Hunger Games: Secrets to Reveal & A Capitol to Overthrow
by mysticaljayne
Summary: "On the 75th anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors." -President Snow Lady Luck was with President Snow this year. With that one paper, he can get rid of the Mockingjay, the rebellious Hunters, the sneaky Leverage, the suspec
1. Chapter 1

There are two types of people in Panem; those that obey the Capitol and those that silently rebel.

District 12's Haymitch Abernathy is one of those that silently rebels.

His willingness to push the boundaries is what caused President Snow's wrath to rain down on his family so many years ago. Haymitch was taught a lesson that day when he came back from the Capitol to bury his parents and two brothers. That lesson taught him to let no one close, and that the Capitol would kill anyone that tried.

Maybe not what President Snow was trying to teach, but the lesson basically did what Snow wanted. Haymitch went inside the bottle and couldn't care less about what happened outside of his drunken haze.

Until last year.

Last year, something about Katniss cut thought the haze (It might have been her nearly stabbing him with a knife, thought don't tell her that.), and something about Peeta kept him out. He did his best to quit the bottle during their games, and to send out some fillers to get them sponsors. He had never done that before, and he was able to keep both of his tributes alive. At the cost of 22 others…

Haymitch tries not to think about it too much. He can't think about all of those young lives that he cut short. He can't think of the kids he had grown up with that died so he could live. He can't think of the lives he had to put second to his own Tributes' so that they could live. He can't think about the nights at the Capitol when he watched his fellow victors come in stumbling from 'work', and how grateful he felt that Snow had already murdered his family and didn't have them to force him to be like the others. He can't think about those times or he'd never put down the bottle.

Now, he had another reason to drown what was left of his life in a bottle.

An hour, or two, or maybe even three, a paper was drawn from the bowl. The last time that happened, three kids from his district died, and the boy he used to be did as well. This time he had another reason to be afraid, for what that paper said threw him back into the drawing. That little paper meant he had a 50% chance of going back into that hell, and a 100% chance of losing another friend to it.

Someone entering the room drags his attention away from the bottle on his desk. His eyes see Peeta, but it takes a moment before his brain comprehends what he is seeing. It takes even longer for him to make out what the boy is saying.

"…volunteer." Peeta finished whatever he had said with a smile that was a cross between determined and fear that Haymitch was going to kick the boy's puppy. Not that Peeta has a puppy, but…

"What did you say?" He hasn't drank that much today. Just a glass or two, which isn't that much considering that a year ago he would have had one or two bottles by now.

Peeta was now agitated and pacing the floor. Whatever he just said must have been very important to him. Too bad, he'd just have to repeat for Haymitch to hear. "I said that I need to go back in the arena to protect Katniss, and I need to make sure you won't volunteer." Ah, Katniss. That boy really does love her.

Haymitch takes another drink from the almost empty glass and slams it back down. "Pft, I didn't plan on going back into that hell hole anyway."

"I…I just thought."

"Thought what?" he poured himself another glass even as Peeta tried to hide his hurt expression. The poor boy should never play poker. "Thought that I'd be too attached to save my own skin? You wish."

Haymitch pulled back his drink and watched as Peeta marched out and slammed the door behind him. He places the glass back down, still with amber fluid inside. Maybe Coin was right. Maybe now was the time for change. Maybe he could save his Tributes just one more time.

He dials a number he knows well from his drinking days (which haven't quite ended). It rings twice before a groggy voice coms over the phone. "Haymitch? What do you want?"

"I think we need a drinking party, Nate. Before the next drawing." A door opens in the house, but Haymitch ignores it. Nate's answer could be the difference between life and death for many of their friends.

"Already had one planned, Abernathy." Nate still sounded like he had drank one too many, but he was the most functioning alcoholic Haymitch had ever met. "Three days at the Club, 3pm, room 13."

Nate hung up just in time for Haymitch's new headache to walk in. "What do you want, Katniss?"

"You to volunteer for Peeta." Katniss demanded, no fear in her. "He's too good to die in the arena."

"First time we've agreed on something." He gives her a salute with his glass before taking a drink of it. His fellow District Victors really drew him to drink. Well, he drank anyway, but an excuse is still an excuse.

"You'll volunteer?"

Haymitch just shrugs. "Course, but that'll only work if his name is drawn." Katniss nods again before gliding (what else would you call silent walking?) out. Cursed hunters. Hunters…

He call another number he knows well (drinking has given Haymitch quite a few odd friends). "Bobby Singer?"

"Sorry, no. It's Sam Winchester. Who are you?"

"John's boy?" Haymitch had a drink or two with John Winchester when the man was still alive. "You won the games three years ago?"

"No, that was Dean." The pride was almost physically pouring through the phone. "He volunteered for me."

So, at least one of John's boys got the chance to escape the hell. "Can you take a message for me?"

"Sure. Jo! Where's a pen?" Sam asked of someone on his side.

"Jo?"

"Ellen's daughter. I'm watching her while the others work." This time, Sam's voice was sprinkled with resentment. The boy is at least fifteen, nearly a man, with people still trying to protect him. A hero for a father, a Favorite as a brother, it's really no wonder why he resents their protection. "Message?"

Sam's request breaks through Haymitch's thoughts, and he has to think for a moment why he called in the first place. Maybe he should lay back a bit on the liquor… "There's going to be a Drinking Party in three days at the Club in Room 13 at about 3 in the afternoon."

Very faint scratching sounds are all he hears through the phone before Sam asks, for clarification, "Drinking party?"

"Yes, Drinking Party. I just thought Bobby would like to join me and Nate." Should he have ended that as 'Nate and I'? Haymitch doesn't know, and yet he asks that of himself. Every so often, he wonders what his life would have been like if his name hadn't been drawn 25 years ago…

"I'll let Bobby know when he gets back." Sam is the one that hangs up the phone.

Haymitch is then left with his thoughts, and half a bottle of scotch.


	2. Chapter 2

Prue had been the first of them to enter the arena, but she definitely wasn't the last.

She had been their protector after Grams died, and as the protector she had volunteered for her younger sister, Piper, not a year later, at the age of 16.

She came back, whole in some ways, broken in others, the same as everyone that entered that cursed place.

A year later, Phoebe's name was drawn and Piper couldn't move, couldn't say those two words to save her younger sister from that place. Phoebe entered the Arena and came back a Victor, with a lover from the Capitol hiding in the shadows.

By the next drawing, Prue was killed by a Type 1 Demon, or the none possessing type that ruled them. Good thing that he, Shaxx, came from a rebel group, or they would have had more attention from the Capital than they already did.

Paige turned twelve that year and with the knowledge that she was their sister publically revealed, they weren't surprised when her name was drawn, just like the remaining Halliwell girls had been. Piper could say the words this time when she saw one of her younger sisters approaching the stand, and the other barely holding it together.

She entered the Arena, and came out colder than any would have thought.

Prue had nightmares about the place till her death, Phoebe drank when the memories became too much, and Piper slept with an Athame close at hand and her sisters within shouting distance.

Being a Halliwell Witch meant drawing Evil's attention, but the Arena was soaked in it. At least at home, in the Manor, sometimes they could see the good that came from using their gifts despite the overwhelming cost of being captured.

Turning into a soldier or a brood mare of the Capitol because of their genetic gifts was a nightmare every one of the girls had to live with.

Now they had another nightmare to face. One of the two older sisters would be entering the Arena, again.

"Cole will protect me." Phoebe argued next to the big green book sitting on the pedestal in the attic. To anybody else's eyes, the book would appear filled with pictures of the previous Halliwell's that had lived, but to the three girls, it was their Book of Shadows. An ancestor of theirs, probably Grams, had put a spell on it before she died. A protection, you can say, against unkind eyes.

"How?" Paige kicked her heels back against the seat she was sitting in. She didn't trust the Type 1 Demon that claimed to have fallen in love with her sister, but they needed any help they could get for their family to stay intact.

"I…I'm not sure." Phoebe flipped through the book and groaning when she found nothing. There had to be a way, some trick to do the impossible.

"Pancakes?" Piper entered as she carried in the plate stacked with the goodies. "They're still warm."

Paige grabbed from the top and Phoebe just groaned, again. "Piper. We need to decide what we're going to do. Who's going in? What strategy we're going to play?"

"Easy." She sat next to Paige and took a bite. "I'm going in. You're staying out. Done."

"What?" Phoebe stopped her search in the book to stare at her older sister. "How can you just decide that? I'm the best fighter, Piper, and best predictor." 'Predictor'? Try precognitive, but you could never be sure who was listening, especially so close to the Games.

"And I have the best offensive. So I'm going in."

"I thought you said we couldn't use our…" Paige stopped midsentence at the glare both were sending her way.

"We did, Paige. But they're changing the rules, and so do we if we're to survive." Piper stabbed her fork into one of the pancakes still setting there.

"How about the Greater Good, Piper? If you're exposed, so are we." Phoebe finally left the book with a glare before settling next to her sisters.

"I have a plan for that." At their questioning looks, she waved her fork at a map laying on a shelf not far from where they were sitting. "Remember that place we found while looking for the… rutabaga?"

"Distr…"

"We remember." Phoebe interrupted with a hand covering Paige's mouth. Too innocent by half, but better innocent than exposed by the Arena. Of the three remaining, Paige's gift was the flashiest (sparkling lights, need say more?), Piper's the deadliest (blowing things up. Good thing there were explosives nearby to explain away the explosion), with Phoebe's being the easiest to explain away (except when she couldn't get down from levitating. Another good thing that that gift had revealed itself far from prying eyes.).

"That's where you two are going when the time is right." Piper kept an almost unnatural focus on the plate sitting on her lap. Eating pancakes wasn't that difficult.

"'You two', how about you? 'When the time is right'?" Paige stopped eating to focus on Phoebe's raised voice. She agreed with Phoebe on this, but when didn't she? It had always been Prue and Piper, and Phoebe and Paige. The two older versus the two younger, even when they hadn't known Paige was one of them.

"Paige will take you both there. I'll find some other way." Piper refused to look at them, a sure sign that she was lying. Of the three, she was the worst liar.

"You're lying, Piper."

"Right time?" Paige interrupted the argument, playing the middle sister for once.

"When everything goes up in fireworks." Piper picked up the plates before heading to the kitchen to wash them. Things needed to stay neat.

"We're not letting her go into the arena without an escape plan." Phoebe looked over at Paige with determination barely covering fear.

"Then let's make one. I'm sure there's something in the book." Paige took the book from Phoebe and started going back through it, hoping that her fresh eyes would see something that her older sister had overlooked.


	3. Chapter 3

Bobby got the message from Sam and proceeded to send the two young Hunters-In-Training out on patrol of an area that was known as being safe. Sam had rolled his eyes, knowing that he was meant to watch out for Jo and to keep her out of the three Victor-Hunters' hair while they had a discussion about the 'drinking party'. Sam could tell that was a thinly veiled code word for something, and that his adopted Uncle Bobby, Aunt Ellen, and big brother Dean would do everything to keep him safe, and ignorant, of the things going around him. Well, as ignorant as he could get.

"No, Bobby. I don't care what _Nathan Ford_ has to say." Ellen stood, feet about hip's length apart with hands on her hips. "Any plan he can come up with will be stopped by the Capitol. It's how it works. The Capitol has eyes and ears everywhere. How do we know this isn't just a trap? A plan to find the rebels in plain sight?"

Bobby rolled his wheelchair up to the table so he could have the chance to slap his hands down. "Shut it, Ellen. Remember what that paper says? We're all going into the pot this year. That paper gave Jo another year, but gave you a certainty. They'll draw your name, Ellen. You're the only female victor from District 6. Don't you want to know what he has to say?"

"And if it is a trap, Bobby, they'll kill Jo. You know how Snow works. He loves to play games. How do you know this isn't just another one? Ford's been with that Favorite Sophie…something. How do you know Snow doesn't already have a mole inside?"

"Devereaux." Dean spoke up from where he was laying down on the couch. At their questioning looks, he sits up with one of his half smiles. "Ford's knocking boots with District 4's Sophie Devereaux. Willingly. She's not that bad, just a woman with a thousand faces."

"Exactly, and how do you know that one of her faces isn't loyal to the Capitol?"

"How do you know about Nathan and Sophie? Phoenix?" Bobby caught onto the other point beneath the topic. Dean was only brought to the Capitol during the Games and when one of his many female friends came calling.

An incredulous look crosses Dean's face before his head falls back and self-deprecating laughter spills forth from his lips. "Seriously, Bobby? Don't you know they love to throw us Favorites together whenever they can? Hell, I've been paired with Sophie more than once for one of their sick games. Phoenix? The old folks like to watch two kids fuck. Course I've been around her. We're the youngest victors. Well, except for the new chick and dick, but you get it." At their silence, he looked between them in shock. "You seriously didn't know I was one of the Favorites?"

"For how long?" Ellen and Bobby took over as caretakers for Dean and Sam after their dad John Winchester died on one of the many hunting trips that the Capitol sent them out with. Ellen lost her husband around the same time, leaving her to raise Jo by herself, and then to help watch out for the two boys. When Sam's name had been called, and Dean volunteered for him, her heart had broken, Bobby's too.

"Uh? About a month after My Game. Snow gave me a call for the assignment. I was paired with Favorite District 4 Finnick Odair. He's not that bad of a guy. Sophie helped me out, afterwards." Dean just shrugged off his forced prostitution with a shrug. "She told me how things worked and gave a few hints on how to make it seem not so bad. How didn't you…Oh. You two really thought I _wanted_ to sleep with all those people?"

"You didn't seem too upset..."

"Because they don't like to **know** they are buying your company." Dean sneered at the two of them. "You two are both Victors, you know how it goes. They **want** to think that you want to be touched by them. That you **want** to be tied up, beaten, drugged, and dressed like they **want** you to be. They want their fantasies to be your fantasies." Dean flopped back onto the couch. "God. I must be a better actor than I thought for you guys to believe that."

Bobby and Ellen shared a look before Ellen nodded. "We'll see what Ford has to say."

"I'll go." Bobby looked over to where Dean lay, appearing to ignore the two of them.

"What day is the party?" Dean interrupted, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Three days from now. Why?"

"I have an assignment that night. Got the note this morning. I'll go." He still didn't move from the couch or look at the other two Victor-Hunters. "Just tell me the time and place before I go."

"Dean…"

"What, Bobby? You and Ellen haven't been in the Capitol for years. I go there to Mentor. I go there for assignments. No one would look twice at me going to a drinking party, especially not long after this assignment." Still, his gaze stayed on the roof, and everything he learned from Sophie evident in how his voice only came across as bored and not as angry.

"What are they making you do, boy?" Bobby rolled his wheelchair over to by his side.

"They're pairing me up with Ali and Brutus." Dean finally moved his head so he could look at Bobby. "The Capitol citizens that hired us like plays beforehand. Don't ask."

"District 2 Brutus?"

"Ali?"

Dean gave another cold laugh. "Is there another Brutus? Ali, as in District 9 Althea Wilde, the twelve year old that volunteered for her games, the one you called 'Phoenix'."

In three days at 3pm in room 13 at The Club, which is a very plain name for a place that's not so plain. The owners of The Club allowed anything to occur under the roof, and anonymity was their forte. When a group of Victors arrived, the bartender didn't bat an eye and just let them on to the backroom. The Club was the place to go for the Capitol Elite that didn't know they were doing the down and dirty with any of the Victors. The Capitol knew, of course, that they were together, but didn't know the specifics here, unlike they would know in all other places.

And for the Victors? You can go there for a night of fun with someone of your choice without the fear of Snow, Source, and Azazel knowing who and what you have been up to.

For the rebels? This is an opportunity to talk and hash out a plan.

For Dean? This place is both a reminder of what he had done just a few hours ago, and a hope that he will never have to do that again (At least against his will.).

The bartender didn't question his return appearance of the day, and he walked down one of the many bright red corridors. In the rooms that he passed, the sounds of torture could be heard, Feedings for the vampires, and some people have what seemed to be very energetic sex. They had probably decided on taking the aphrodisiacs that sometimes the 'clients' had the Victors take when they really wanted a night (or day, as the case may be) of interrupted fun. Most likely they had taken more than they wanted, coming from the sound of their urgency.

Room 13. If Sammy was here, he would probably have a book full of knowledge about that number. He'd be able to say that 13 has been considered unlucky for whatever number of years, and know the number, with all of the information about anything bad that has happened related to that number.

But Sammy isn't here.

Dean is.

And he's happy for that fact. He's happy that he's the one that's here, and he's the one that the Capitol has its claws into.

He reaches to knock on the door (Hey! He has walked in on enough people, no need to see anymore), but before he gets the chance, he sees a flash of red hair and a back that he has gotten to know over the past two years. "Ali?"

She freezes in her walk before turning with a smile. "Dean? I thought you were done for the day."

He does a quick scan, glad to know that their 'job' didn't leave as many bruises as he thought on her. He found a couple of bruises on himself in the shower afterwards. Brutus really lived up to his name this time. "I am. Just meeting up with a few friends before heading back to District 6. You?"

A half smile on her face, acceptance of their fates and nothing more show on her face. "One more before being shipped back." At his continued stare, she lets out a tinkling laugh. "It's called makeup, silly man. With enough concealer, any bruise can be covered. Friends? I thought your only friends were in District 6?"

"And you."

She ignored the sentiment to come stand next to him and look at the door. "Room 13? Isn't that District 7 Nathan Ford's preferred room? I thought I overheard him saying something about the irony of the number last year."

Dean looked back at the door for a moment, before turning back to her with an epiphany (He's been hanging around Sammy a bit too much lately if 'epiphany' is the first word that comes to mind at this time.). "Why don't you come? It's just a few friends, and since you are my friend…"

The door opens to reveal the smiling face of District 4 Sophie Devereaux. "Dean! I thought I heard you out here." A revealing dress leaves little to the imagination but as to what could be going beyond the door. She's a beautiful woman who has a thousand faces ready and waiting to be called upon when she has need, a good balance to the chess-loving alcohol drinking Nathan Ford. With eagle eyes, she sees Ali standing beside him. "Phoenix! Are you Dean's date for the evening?"

"Umm, no. No, Ms. Devereaux, and I'm not Phoenix. That was my grandmother." A default reaction, and one that Dean has watched her go into before, and all of Panem did as well for her own games; she was being the shy, uncertain girl.

A glint of something entered the grifter's eye, and her smile became a bit sharper than before as she moved out of the doorway to let them enter. "But you both bear the same tattoo, do you not?"

"Birthmark, Ms. Devereaux." The shyness was gone and the challenger that Panem saw in the 73rd Games was back. "As you well know, every person descended from Helen Phoenix, winner of the 3rd Hunger Games, bears her birthmark, and every person bearing her mark has been in the Games."

"You come from two Victor Families." Sophie kept up her interrogation even as the two of them went deeper into the room and the different groups go silent at their approach. In the room there is District 11 Parker sitting between her two default lovers; District 3 Alec Hardison and District 10 Eliot Spencer. Snow kept Hardison in line with threats to his adopted mother that he affectionately referred to as 'Nana' and Eliot with threats to his two lovers. For a long time, Snow had nothing on the short tempered self-proclaimed hitter of Ford's team, before word got around of how much time he had been spending with the other two. Eliot didn't want either of his two young lovers having to deal with the Capitol's citizens and their twisted fantasies.

"That I do." Ali answered the grifter's questions with a calmness that Dean was definitely not feeling.

When heading towards Nathan Ford and…Haymitch Abernathy? Sophie asked another question of the young Victor, "How old are you now, fourteen?"

"Thirteen." Dean bit out through his teeth, strange looks coming his way from both women, for Ali was a woman from her experiences, even if her years weren't at the same ranking. "Her birthday is the first day of the Game."

Playfulness is back in her gaze as Ali gently punched his arm. "You never tell a female's age, Dean. Even I know that rule of social engagement."

The paired looks from both Ford and Abernathy seemed to be a message to Sophie because at that moment, she started to lead Ali away from the three males with some question about beauty products found in the Capitol.

Nathan Ford looks ready to crawl back into the bottle with Haymitch not far behind. "What were you thinking bringing her in here?"

"I was thinking that any plan that you could think of would need as many people as possible on your side in the arena." Dean really would like to have his trusty gun Baby at his side, but weapons weren't allowed to be carried by anyone but the Peace Keepers (and most of them don't require any form of traditional weapon) in the Capitol, and only the Hunters in District 6. Here? All he had was his wits on his side, and knowledge of the past on his side.

Haymitch went ahead and took a drink off the table not far from where they sitting. "She's a favorite of the Capitol, and from a Victor Family." Staying sober is harder than operating fully drunk. Ford would know it well, he was the one everyone would point out as a 'Functional Alcoholic'.

"And you don't come from a Victor Family? Sophie isn't a Favorite?" Dean countered Haymitch with annoyance. The Hunters were called in, the Hunters, who were one step away from being Peace Keepers, and they were trusted when being born into a marked family or marked by the citizens of the Capitol as someone to be wanted.

Ford, Mastermind Ford with his four thieves on his side, and the planner of this supposedly fool proof plan, made the final decision. "Fine, Dean. We can't trust her. It's too close and we have no way of testing her so soon."

"Okay, then. But if, when, she kills one of us, don't you dare blame her. I warned you." Dean remembered the 73rd Games very well. While he excelled at setting traps and killing off the other tributes, she had stalked each individual and took them out in small groups. What Panem and the other Tributes saw that year had been a scared little girl, what they always failed to consider was that she volunteered to enter the arena.

Haymitch and Ford both remember those games as well. Any games in which a Career doesn't win is one of note. The five Victor Families: Ford, Halliwell, Campbell (Winchester now, after the last Campbell, Mary, married John), Wilde, and Phoenix (Though Phoenix and Wilde became one when Rose Phoenix joined with Flynn Wilde, and the rest of the two families died off), were also people that the Capitol took notice of. Haymitch is the one that asks… "You're joining? You don't even know what the plan is."

"That's why we're here, isn't it? To learn our part of the plan?" Dean took one of the glasses on the table with a shrug. Whoever's it was, he'd probably done more with them than swap a bit of saliva.

Ford seemed a bit preoccupied with something else. Probably another aspect of 'the plan' he could fiddle with. "Yes, well."

None of them noticed that they had another person back into their space. "Dean? Umm, I'm going onto my appointment. Have fun with your 'friends'." Ali looked between them with an uncertain smile before giving a wave and heading towards the door.

She didn't quite make it when a blonde whirlwind came running towards her and placing a sloppy kiss on her lips. "Bye, Ginger." Parker had a secretive smile on her face before going back to her place between her two men.

"It's…" Ali started to contradict the not-always-there Parker before giving up, "never mind. See you 'round, Parker. Dean." She left and it was as if the entire room released a breath that they hadn't even known they'd been holding.

Sophie's tongue was freed at that moment as she slipped in under Ford's arm. "She has appointments? She's a child."

"Yeah, we had a joint assignment a few hours ago." Dean's voice may have been a bit harsher than he intended at the revelation of that news. Ignoring their shocked looks, he took another drink. "So, what's the plan?"

Hardison stood up from his position next to Parker to click a small remote. A screen lit up with the faces of the previous Victors lined up on the screen, organized by District number. A list of stats was also on the side of each one of the photos. "Out of combing through every Victor from District 1, the one's most likely to be in the arena are Gloss and Cashmere Cosmetics."

"Gloss feels that the games cheated him for glory and Cashmere misses the blood." Sophie explained even as the rest keep their gaze on the screen. "They are also hoping that the rule from the last games stays in effect. That way, the siblings both get to come home, and they don't have to kill one another off. A good drama for the games, that way."

"In District 2, the ones most likely…"

"You mean Nate's best guess." Haymitch interrupted with a one sided toast.

"Fine. Mastermind Nathan Ford's best guess for District 2 is Enobaria for female tribute, and Demarko for the male." Hardison flipped through the screen so that the two faces dominated the screen before becoming small again.

There was another young male from District 2…"How about Brutus?" Dean asked of the confident group.

"Either one has the same problem." Ford went to stand next to the screen. "Both District 1 and 2 are considered on the side of Capitol, and people that cannot be trusted. For the plan to work, the Capitol cannot know of it. Only the people in this room," with a meaningful glance around the room he continued, "and already tested individuals can be trusted. At this time, we have to go with what we know, not what we feel."

Hardison cleared his throat to bring the attention back to him and his presentation. "Back to me, folks. In District 3 it will be Wiress and me."

"Hardison. We went over this. You are…"

"No, Nate." Hardison interrupted with a raised hand. "I can't do anythang ta stop Wiress from going in, we both know that. But I can stop Beetee. He can do the same stuff I can on the outside, but only I have the skills for the inside." He just shrugged and Dean happened to notice that Parker's expression was blank and Eliot's was filled with anger. "Now, District 4 has Finnick for the male tribute and…"

"Me for the female." Sophie gave a smile at Nate's point look. "Hon, you should know by now that I can't let Mags or Annie enter that place. Mags would be killed soon entering the arena, and the games would destroy all progress that has been made with Annie."

Nate looked about ready to argue before Hardison went on with his presentation. "District 5 has only one male, so Rex Buckland. The female will either be Piper or Phoebe Halliwell. Since Piper is the eldest, and has lately shown signs of being protective of Phoebe and Paige Matthews, the lost sister, she's the one we're betting on." When no other interruptions were forthcoming, "District 6 has Ellen for the female tribute, and either Bobby Singer or Dean Winchester for the male. Dean Winchester is the candidate most likely to be drawn, considering Mr. Singer's recent disability."

Dean fought the urge to give opinion, but failed. "Mr. Singer was his father, he's Bobby."

Nate just nodded, as though expecting Dean to give this information (and he probably did, the smug bastard), and gave a hand wave as though to hurry Hardison along.

"District 7 will be Johanna for female tribute with Nathan Ford as male." Hardison started the dialogue with the same enlarging of the photos before becoming small again. "District 8 will be Woof for male and Cecelia for female."

"Poor C.C." Sophie breathed out, and the room pretended not to hear. "Her little babies…"

"From District 9 will be Colin Mason, also known as _CHAOS,_ " disgust entered Hardison's toneless voice this time around, "for the male tribute with female being Phoenix."

"Ginger!" Parker yelled out from beside Eliot.

"Ali…" Dean murmured under Parker's loud yell.

"Yeah, well…" Hardison pushed another button to go on to the next district. "District 10 will be…"

"Me for male tribute." Eliot's always angry face stayed put as he leaned back. "I'm not about to let you and Parker go in without backup."

Hardison looked just as angry but a sharp jerk from Ford had him shut his mouth and get back to the business at hand. He could yell at his two lovers later. "From District 11, the male tribute will be either Archie or Apollo…"

"It'll be Apollo." The look in Parker's eyes causes a chill to go down Dean's spine. No one questioned the conviction in the thief's voice.

"The female tribute will be…will be Parker." Hardison stuttered again on this. "District 12 will have either Haymitch Abernathy or Peeta Mellark for the male tribute." They covertly looked to Haymitch, but all he did was take another drink. "Katniss Everdeen as female tribute."

Haymitch gave out a drunken laugh. "The fool will do everything he can to protect the little Mockingjay."

"The plan will be to protect the Mockingjay." Nate started his pacing around the front of the room, glass still in hand, despite the disapproving looks his team was sending his way. "Districts 1 and 2 will be considered red, or no trust. Everyone in the arena should try to avoid them. Districts 3 and 4 will be green, or complete trust. District 5 Rex Buckland is red, he's been seen helping the Capitol on multiple accounts. He is suspected of being possessed at this point. The female? Yellow, or be cautious when approaching her. District 6?"

Dean shrugged, "If you have a plan that involves my little brother and Jo being safe from ever entering that arena or ever dealing with Snow, I'm all in. Ellen? Only if you can guarantee Jo's safety. She doesn't trust your plan."

"Do you, Dean?" Nate asked with the tumbler barely balanced enough in his hand to keep the drink from spilling out.

Dean took a look around the room and thought about all that had happened in the past three years. In three years, he had lost his fellow tribute and then the four tributes that came afterwards while mentoring them. He had been given clients and forced to do things that he would rather forget. "I've heard rumors, Nate. Your plans always work. I just hope your plan has out loved ones out of the way, and us out of that arena."

It was like looking at a snake who had just been given his favorite snack of a mouse the way Nate was looking at Dean. "I have back up plans for back up plans, Winchester. I don't lose, and this is the con that is going to beat all cons. If we succeed, things will change, and for the better." The mood changed from something intense to something more encompassing. "Now, when you go into the arena, the goal is to get Katniss Everdeen out alive. The second goal," a quick glance to Haymitch here, "is to protect Peeta. The third will be to protect each other and yourselves. Hardison has the plan for what to do in the arena. Follow his lead. Any questions?"

Nate looked around the group with a frown, and when no one asked any questions, his smile nearly covered his entire face. "Good. Let's go steal a Mockinjay."

The ride back to District 6 was uneventful and Dean got off without fanfare in his District's heart. He walked his way back to Victors Village with a shrug. In Hunting, you have to keep in shape. It was one positive going for him since that paper was drawn from the bowl.

Bobby would need the information that he had gathered in the Capitol and everything that that could possibly mean for the future of their district. Bobby had become the unofficial leader of the Hunters after Sam Campbell's, Dean and Sam's grandfather's, death. Their father had been Bobby's second before the demon took him out.

Dean just walked into Bobby's place and greeted both him and Ellen, who were both sitting around the kitchen table with a pile of notes strewed across the table. "What did Ford have to say?" Bobby asked with a nod towards the chair between him and Ellen.

"Where's Sam and Jo?" Dean hadn't heard from District 6 during his entire time at the Capitol.

Ellen picked up one the papers off of the table with a kind of dazed look on her face. "They're doing a salt and burn."

"On their own?!"

"You were doing those on your own when you were Jo's age, Dean." Bobby kept looking at Dean with a half fond look, and half exasperation. "Now, sit down and tell me what you learned from that old drunk, you idjit."

Dean was about to freak when Ellen suddenly stood up. "I'll check on them after you tell us what you found out."

Biting at the bit, nevertheless, Dean stood next to the chair and gave the short version. "Basically, we'll all go into the games with the goal of protecting the District 12 chick that won last year. He said something about getting everybody to safety and all that jazz. He didn't say much else. Doesn't seem like we have to do that much."

"Except put our safety after the idiot." Ellen snapped. "You've got to be kidding me. What's to stop Snow from killing our families after he figures out what's going on in that arena? It won't take that many sacrifices from us before he figures it out. So, no. No way. I'm not going to be part of that plan." She left, but not before grabbing a shotgun full of salt shells.

Dean waited until the silence left by the slamming of Bobby's front door turned uncomfortable before saying, "I'll do it."

"Don't be an idjit, boy." Bobby spluttered out at the young man he'd watched grow from a boy.

Dean was in the same place as he was earlier, a place that feels as if the rock and the hard place are getting closer and closer. "It's me or you, Bob. In the arena you're…"

At the mentioning of the 'hunting accident', irrational anger fused through the aging hunter. He had done what needed to be done that day, and had lived to tell the tale. If he hadn't done what he did, Dean wouldn't be sitting next to him and Sam wouldn't be out there on a hunt with Jo. "Useless?! You don't think I know that! You need to be here for Sammy."

"I need to be in there for… You'll be out here for Sam, and Nate's plan seems possible." It was a copout, and he knew it, but what else was there to say? It was a slim hope, but hope nonetheless.

Bobby could tell the boy didn't believe what he was saying, but something that sounded suspiciously like hope was there, and false hope was better than no hope, right? "You believe that old drunk will be able to come up with a plan to foil the Capitol?"

This time, Dean's voice was stronger. "His team does, Bobby, and so does Haymitch. If anyone can figure it out, it'll be Ford." It doesn't mean that he could, per say, but if it was possible, Ford would be the one.

Bobby only had one thing to say to the young man sitting beside him. A Victor-Hunter like himself, but not quite as jaded as he himself is. Only one word could be used to describe him, and of course Bobby had to make thought word spoken…

"Idjit."


	4. Chapter 4

**District 1:**

A Career District, lots of names filled both glass bowls and the Capitol Representative's smile was still bright as the Victors stood into two groups, on one side were the females and on the other side the males.

The female tribute was the person that Nate had claimed would be, "Cashmere Cosmetics."

The woman walked onto the stage with her hands held high for the people to see, and a bright smile on her face.

Before the male tribute could be drawn, a male voice from the male Victors yelled out "I volunteer!"

Gloss Cosmetics strolled across the stage to stand hand in hand with his sister.

"There we have it!" The Capitol Representative called out in false excitement. "Tributes Gloss and Cashmere Cosmetics!"

 **District 2:**

Another Career district, and another two bowls with names inside of them. Before the Capitol Representative, someone who had died their hair orange, could even draw the name, a female was volunteering themselves.

"I volunteer!" Enobaria called, and seemed to just float on air across the stage to stand by the large fishbowl.

"Yes, well." The Representative was flustered as she waved her hands before saying," Now, for male tribute…" She rummaged around the bowl before pulling out a name, "Brutus Hamaar."

The large man walked forward, a smile not in place nor a frown. He stood tall beside his own bowl, and the audience fought to hold back their tears.

"District 2 Tributes, Brutus Hamaar and Enobaria Clike."

 **District 3:**

Alec Hardison's hands jittered, longing for a piece of tech to be in his hands. He stood next to Beetee as their usual Capitol Representative took the place behind the microphones and gave a speech about what this means for Panem. Hardison basically ignored the woman as she drew the lone paper from the female's bowl. "Wiress Compu."

Wiress stumbled onto the stage, mumbling something about patterns and refusing to look out at the crowd.

The Representative looked sad, before going over to the male's bowl. She drug out a piece of paper. "Beetee Wiredd."

"I volunteer." Hardison mumbled out before speaking louder. "I volunteer!" He made it to his place on the stage, a concerned look for Wiress as she kept on mumbling.

"I present to you, District 6 Tributes Alec Hardison and Wiress Compu!"

 **District 4:**

Finnick was having a panic attack before even entering Reaping area. "Finnick, what's wrong?" Annie reached for him but he pulled away.

"No, don't. Annie, please." Finnick begged of her even as his breathing became shallower and he started to shake. "I'm…I'm fine. Go, go on."

Annie didn't look like she was going to move before Mags looped her arm through hers and gave Sophie a point look before moving onward.

Sophie stood in front of younger man and held his face in her hands. "Finnick. Finnick! They won't get Annie."

"You…you don't know that." He's voice was stuttering to the rate of his shaking.

"I do, Finnick." Sophie's voice seemed to take him back into his body. "I know they won't, because I won't let them."

The walked on into the area with smiles before separating into the male and female groupings. They had a new Capitol Representative. Too bad, the last person, Deedee, had been a nice person.

Another speech, another thing to just listen with one ear when the fun part came. The Representative reached into the bowl that had three names, "Annie Cresta."

"I volunteer." Sophie called before any reaction could be made by her fellow victors. The Representative seemed stunned for a moment before being able to go on to the other bowl.

"Finnick Odair." Finnick went to stand next to Sophie. She gave him a couraging nod before facing their fellow district members, avoiding gazes with the other victors standing on the sidelines.

 **District 5:**

The Representative for District 5 walked up without a second look towards any others around the area. The Representative gave the pre-made speech before heading towards the bowl, "Piper Halliwell."

Even over the screen, the glare she sent her sister was plan to see, along with the anger that was barely controlled on Phoebe's face.

The Representative proceeded to go to the other bowl, and pulled out the lone paper, "Rex Buckland."

He went up to stand beside Piper so that the three of them stood on the stage side-by-side.

"District 5 Tributes, Rex Buckland and Piper Halliwell."

 **District 6:**

Bright yellow hair and a painted on face, the Capitol Representative this year had really put on the war paint for this drawing.

A speech about what the games mean, and time to get down to the dirt. The female tribute was chosen first, and Jo had to be held back when Ellen's name was called.

Ellen was silent as she made it to the stage. She was a Victor-Hunter. She had her own skills, and one of them she surrounded with pride and stood strong even as she heard her daughter's cries.

"Bobby Singer." The Representative pulled the name out with a professionalism that matched the war paint.

"I volunteer." Dean didn't bother looking at Bobby's disapproving face, or Sam's bitch face. Hopefully, Nate's plan would work.

"District 6 Tributes, Ellen Harvelle and Dean Winchester."

 **District 7:**

The Representative sporting purple hair with a swan on top of his head, smiled a smile filled with multicolored teeth. "Now, who's ready to meet our tributes?!" No one in the crowd replied, and considering that no one had in the past, it wasn't that unexpected.

"Female first!" The Representative called out and pulled the lone paper free, "Johanna Mason!"

Still no reaction from the crowd, but what else is new? Only districts 1 and 2 ever seemed excited to send their people into the arena…probably because they were very likely to see them again.

"Male tribute…Nathan Ford!"

"I volunteer." John Hannibal Smith called out with a jolly wave of his cigar.

Nathan grabbed ahold of his arm before he could make the walk up onto the stage. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Keeping you on the outside where you can be the most helpful." Smith said out of the corner of his mouth, smile still firmly in place.

"Hannibal…" Nate warned the older man, and his game's mentor.

"Stay strong, son, and stick to the plan." Smith still mumbled before taking his place upon the stage.

"I present…District 7 Tributes, John Smith and Joanna Mason!"

 **District 8:**

The Capitol Representative had bright green hair and penciled in eyebrows. He giggled, actually giggled, and skipped over to the female Victors' bowl. Only one name was in the bowl, but he was excited for this was his first time.

"Cecelia Hants." The lone female victor forced a smile even as her young children tried to hold her back from walking onto the stage. Her husband, tears going down his cheeks, reach for the kids to hold them from running towards her.

"Woof Curtaan." The lone male victor, an older male with a distracted look on his face walked up to stand next to the other tribute.

The two tributes held each other's hands and stood proudly in front of their families, friends, and fellow district members.

"District 8 Tributes, Woof Curtaan and Cecelia Hants!"

 **District 9:**

"New this year, folks!" The Capitol Representative smiled and opened up his arms wide. "The Tributes are from the previous Victors, and you know what that means?"

Ali, at her place on the female Victors' side, rolled her eyes and briefly caught gazes with Colin "CHAOS" Mason. He looked as annoyed as she felt, but quite a bit more nervous.

While he won his games with luck and his skills with technology (a district 7 person knowing technology? Strange, but not enough to warrant execution), Ali won her games with a version of brute strength and cunning. Her hands were soaked in blood, while his was just around the finger tips.

"Now, first we have the female Tribute." Ali let the eye roll occur on her face as the Representative tried to keep the excitement built. "Althea Wilde!"

"Surprise, surprise." CHAOS mumbled with a smirk.

"Male tribute...Colin Mason!"

Ali couldn't resist joining in his fun, "Surprise, Surprise." She mumbled, just enough for CHAOS to be able to hear her.

"District 9 Tributes…Colin Mason and Althea Wilde!"

 **District 10:**

The Capitol Representative for District 10 was a spindly fellow with too big eyes and too big hair only emphasized by his way too big glasses.

Parker thought he looked weird, even if her view was slightly obstructed by the angle she was forced to stand as the only female Victor from 10. Her name was going to be drawn, but Nate had a plan. If she survived? She didn't want to survive without Eliot and Hardison.

"Parker Murdock." The reminder of her father's name nearly had her flash back into one of those nightmares that never stopped but also couldn't have been true. What her father had said before he had died had to have been false, but also true? She didn't like remembering him, after that. It wasn't her father, even if everyone claimed she was crazy. Nobody can wear someone else's face, even if it was joked that Sophie had a thousand of them.

"Apollo Treden." Apollo knew he had had a fifty percent chance and so walked up to stand next to Parker. He wasn't as good as her, but he was close.

Archie was frozen as his two Victors were chosen and forced to stand upon the stage. Parker had made him promise to not volunteer, and so he didn't.

"District 10 Tributes, Apollo Treden and Parker Murdock!"

Parker wasn't surprised at Apollo's name being drawn. No one was going to force her foster father back into that arena. Apollo was faster, he had a better chance of being okay, even without a team watching his back.

 **District 11:**

Similar to the other outlying districts, there were only three Victors that could claim District 11 as their home. Last year, B.A. had hoped to be able to claim a fourth, but things happen. You can't dwell too long on such things in Panem, there will be another set of children to be in the arena the year after.

Well, except for this year.

This year, two of the three will be entering that arena once more.

"Mikhel Davidd!" Not expected, only one of the Victors was female, and that was she.

"B.A. Baracus." Well, it was a…

"I Volunteer!" Eliot called out before B.A. could take his place on the stage.

What the heck was that idiot doing?

Eliot just smiled, actually a smile that wasn't filled with anger like it had been since his games years ago.

"District 11 Tributes…Eliot Spencer and Mikhel Davidd!"

 **District 12:**

Effie picked the lone piece of paper from the female's side.

"Katniss Everdeen!" Effie had to fight back the tears. Within just a short amount of time, she had grown to care about her assigned district's victors.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. After the tributes won…they were supposed to be safe to love. They weren't supposed to be able to be drawn back into the arena.

"Haymitch Abernathy!" The old drunk had even started to grow on her…

"I volunteer!" Peeta yelled out and hurried to the front. "I volunteer."

Well, foo-eee. She really liked Peeta.

"District 12 Tributes Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen!"


	5. Chapter 5

Study them, Haymitch said, pick your allies.

The problem? Katniss has a thing for the weakest members, and a dislike for the strongest.

The first two districts she rejected outright. The careers were people that just…didn't seem to fit quite right. They were going to go into the arena to survive, and they saw nothing with stabbing people while they sleep. At least that was the opinion that Katniss had been able to grab within a few moments of being in her company.

Peeta had felt the same.

During lunch, they decided to check out another one of the districts, District 3. Why not go in order?

There was a problem…only one of them was alone. Wiress was sitting not far from her district partner, Alec Hardison.

Alec? He was sitting next to District 10 Parker Murdock and District 11 Eliot Spencer.

"Is this seat taken?" Peeta took the lead when Katniss looked ready to walk the other way.

"No." Eliot growled out in a not so friendly tone.

"Come! Sit!" Parker bounced up and down, pointing to the seats across from them. "He's always like that." She proceeded to jab a finger into Eliot's side.

"Parker…"

"It's his growly voice. You get used to it." She then proceeded to start eating a roll that Katniss swore was on Eliot's plate.

Alec smiled at Katniss and Peeta before rolling his eyes at his comrades. "Hi. I'm Hardison, and those two are Parker and Eliot." His eyes were filled with fondness as he looked at the two of them. "And this is Wiress." The fondness wasn't the same as with the two, but it was there. Similar to a look someone would give a beloved aunt.

Wiress looked up at her name, before playing with some wires in her lap. "Beetee not here." She mumbled to herself, "Beetee safe."

"I know." Hardison put an arm around the older woman, all his attention focused on her. "Remember? I volunteered. Beetee is safe at home."

At that moment, Katniss put Wiress and Hardison on her list of allies. A quick look at the expressions on Parker and Eliot's faces had Peeta add those two on there, as well.

District 4 didn't have as good of a reception.

Katniss marked Finnick off during the chariot entrance. His very attitude caused her the hairs on her arm to raise.

Peeta marked Sophie Devereaux off during her interview. The woman was playing everyone, and doing it with a skill that he didn't even catch on till he saw the way Eliot had rolled his eyes at the woman. If she could lie that well, what was to stop her from doing the same in the arena and killing everyone while they slept?

District 5 went better during the training session.

"Katniss Everdeen?" Rex Buckland smiled and went to shake her hand. "A pleasure to meet you."

Piper Halliwell was nowhere to be seen, but Peeta and her had decided to divide and conquer on this one. So far, Katniss wasn't liking Rex.

"Sure." She didn't shake his hand, and his hand eventually dropped. He had been looking at the staffs when she had decided to approach.

"Wish to spar?" Rex picked up one of the staffs with a decided air. Should she? Shouldn't she?

"Yes." She grabbed one of them before stepping into the circle. There was a couple of taps of the staffs towards one another before Rex went into a spin.

More style than practical, a similar trait that had turned her from picking Finnick. He was able to knock her staff from her hands, but she was able to trip him when he pulled the staff up for a maneuver that he could have avoided and just brought down on her.

He tripped her, too. But her decision was already made up about the male from District 5.

Peeta wasn't sure what to make of the woman from District 5.

Piper Halliwell was learning about the plants and the plant station. Not really joining in, but not ignoring the teacher, either.

"Piper?" Peeta got her attention, "Mind if I join you?"

Piper looked at the seat across from her. "There's a seat."

After a few moments of watching her, Peeta learned one thing from her, she knew her plants. "How do you know so much about plants?"

"Grandmother." Her smile was sad, even as she separated the pile of plants that was given her again into their proper places. "My sister was better."

"Sister?" Peeta had seen the two girls hugging her during the reaping, but did she have any other siblings?

"Yes. Older. She died."

"Oh, was she…?"

"Yes, but she won her games." Piper was silent for a while before noticing the unspoken question Peeta was sending her way. "A rogue demon killed her."

"I'm sorry. Did the Peace Keepers get it?"

"No." A scary light entered her eyes, and Peeta wasn't sure what to make of it. "But it'll never kill again."

Peeta's opinion was still uncertain, but something told him she wouldn't stab in the back, but straight on.

District 6 Ellen Harvelle took one look at them headed her way before walking to the other side of the room. Peeta got the hint, and just put her in the 'no' category.

The other District 6 member? Well, meeting him had them meeting another member; District 9 Althea Wilde.

The younger girl scanned both of them before tossing a knife at Katniss. She caught it by the blade, almost cutting herself. "Show Dean how to aim."

Dean had a cheeky grin on his face. "I like close range."

"Like you like being on top?" Althea threw the question over her should even as she went to stand by Katniss. "Arm's too extended. Opens you up for close attack." The younger girl corrected in an absent minded voice.

"What?" Peeta spluttered out from where he was next to Dean.

"I like change." Dean shrugged at Peeta's exclamation. "I thought you did, too."

Katniss threw the knife and hit, just slightly off center. "I like being alive." The girl handed Katniss another knife. "A little more to the left, and go faster. At this range, if the person was running towards you, you already would be dead."

"Why are you helping me?" Katniss asked the girl whose hair was held tightly back in a braid.

The girl shrugged, even as Dean made another lewd joke. "My grandmother taught me that the only good win was a win against someone that is your equal." She seemed to think for a moment, before looking up at a clock. "In your games, you kept being pinned. Practice wrestling with Eliot. Parker had a similar problem, and he helped her."

Dean stopped his jokes, much to a wide eyed Peeta's relief, at the look at the clock. "Another one, Ali?"

She laughed at that, even as Katniss's knife flew true. "They said they wanted the 'Phoenix'. At least this time, I'm the one welding the knife." She left the group with a wave.

"Phoenix?" Peeta asked the young man still with them.

He gave a snort. "An inherited title. She fought like her grandmother did. Considering her family's luck, it's not surprising."

"What are you talking about?" Peeta asked, with Katniss's frown as a background.

Dean shook his head at them. "You really don't know? We're both from _Victor Families_." He told them with a sneer. "If you are born into one of the five families, bets are your name will be drawn."

"Families?"

"Ford's one." Dean shrugged before staring at the knife in his hands. "His name was drawn, his pregnant wife's, and basically his entire mother's line. Mine's another, through my mother. Halliwell's have it worse, only one person wasn't drawn since the beginning of the games, and that was Prue, and she volunteered. Ali? She has the other two families in her veins. Last of both of their lines." His laughter was cold, "We all thought after winning our games, we wouldn't have to deal with it for another generation. Hell, I wasn't about to have a kid to watch go through my hell."

Katniss and Peeta didn't know how to react to that…

Ford was a sanctimonious jack-hole.

Mikhel acted too much like the careers to be comfortable.

CHAOS, as he insisted on being called, kept whining the entire time.

Woof wasn't all the way there.

Cecelia? Katniss liked, but seemed to be barely holding it together.

Apollo stole Katniss's pin, and won her hatred. Parker brought it back, with a contrite Apollo behind her to tell the District 12 Tribute sorry. At Parker put it, "Archie told us not to steal outside of the arena. If I can't, neither can you."

Joanna Mason? Well… Katniss didn't have a very high opinion of the woman.

Haymitch listened to their suggestions with a secretive smile. They mostly picked out the people he had already chosen with Nathan Ford earlier.


	6. Chapter 6

'In a circle, in the middle of a giant swimming pool.' Dean thought to himself with a small chuckle. No wonder so many things had been about water during the training. 'Good thing a part of hunter training was swimming, since so many rogues like water.'

At the buzzard sound, the twenty four tributes leapt into the giant pool.

Most went towards the cornucopia in the center. A few swam towards the shore. Others? Floundered in the water, waiting to be picked off.

There was a battle going on at the cornucopia, Team Mockingjay vs. Careers. Dean saw Ellen swim away from the fighting crowd, and was glad that she was safe. He quickly went to fight side by side with Team Mockingjay, for even if he had refused to wear their lame symbol, he had been recruited to keep the girl safe.

Ali jumped on the tribute from District 12 and was about to break the girl's nose when the pin on her jacket caught her eye.

Flashback:

"Ali? Do you trust me?" Dean asked in a corner that Hardison had already checked for bugs. It was clean.

"You know I do." She didn't have to think about it. Like the oddity that was her life, when she met Dean, just something about him told her to trust him. That he would never stab her in the back.

"Don't attack anyone wearing a mockingjay."

"A what?"

"A mockingjay."

Present:

"Don't let yourself be pinned again." Ali growled out before leaping off to grab a bag and jumping back into the water.

Katniss made it to her feet to start fighting off the Careers.

She also found a bag and jumped into the water, swimming to the shore where she saw Peeta.

She was shocked, and vocal, when she saw the others with him, though; District 4 Sophie Devereaux and Finnick Odair.

Eliot Spencer:

It was disturbing, even if he had helped train in some of those moves, to watch Parker cut through the monkeys that were attacking them. She was deadly, and deadly was what they needed to be able to get Wiress and Hardison to the other part of the team.

Johanna was at Parker's side, fighting off the bothersome monkeys. Eliot fought the urge to help them, but he had to keep Wiress and Hardison moving. The two from District 3 kept tripping over their own feet and slowing the group down.

Which was dangerous…but neither he nor Parker would leave Hardison behind. And Wiress? Alec wasn't leaving her behind, even without word from Ford telling them that Katniss wanted Wiress protected.

You protect your own, especially when your own is out of their depth.

Piper:

She was running through the jungle when she felt eyes on her. She had to stay alive, and remain calm, for longer than this.

She spun around just as the girl from District 9 dropped out of a tree. "I don't want to hurt you." Piper yelled out to the girl.

"I won't." The girl told her offhandedly. Everything was about appearances, and that was one thing that all Victors had to learn fairly quickly. "Your mother was friends with mine. Your grandmother, my grandmother's. Best of friends."

"And best of friends tell each other secrets." Piper finished what the girl in the defensive position was trying to stay. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

"You no alone." It looked as though the girl was fighting to put words into some semblance of sense. "You have family. You need someone to watch back. I bring you to people."

"How about you?" Piper didn't trust her, but had to go with her instincts.

"I alone. No family." Ali reached to her sleeve near her wrist and pulled it up. "Birthmark. Mark of death. You. You need be safe." On the girl's arm was a red mark in a very loose shape of a bird. "I? I not safe. I take you to safe."

Parker:

The district 12 girl is weird. She only stays around the boy, but also is always watching them. Not trusting anyone but the other member.

Truth? Parker thinks the girl is strange. But not because of the untrusting part. If a group of known friends decided to go up to you and asked for you to be part of a team, inside a world where everyone dies but one, she wouldn't trust them, either.

At least Nate...

Two females have entered their camp without raising an alarm. The girl from 12 (maybe she has another name? Parker shrugs it off as unimportant) raises her bow with an arrow notched. Eliot is doing his thing where he was about to attack, but not yet thing. Alec, Wiress, and Peeta had ducked down.

It was Sophie that stops the standoff, because Sophie knows _everything_. Well, not quite everything, but enough to read most people. "Phoenix? You here to kill us or to join?"

"Neither." The girl bit out. "Piper. Safe. Here."

"Very well." Sophie did a quick sweep of both of them before turning back to the fish on her lap. "Piper can join."

"You can't make that decisions for us." The District 12 female growled…well. Sort of, but if she actually growled like Eliot does, that would have been funny.

"As long as she's an Ally, she isn't a Career." Sophie motioned for Piper to sit next to her on the ground. "Besides, there's enough of us to take her out if we needed to."

Piper:

'That's what you think.' Piper thought to herself. She knew she had been lucky so far, not having to reveal her abilities in front of anyone.

So, when they were attacked by demons. Yes, demons. It seems as though the Capitol was pulling out all of the shots by letting their criminals into the arena to go against the previous Victors.

Dean was able to hold his own, but he was the only one in the group, besides herself, that had any history with fighting the black eyed monsters, or with the demons that seemed to make her district their home.

When he fell, she didn't think twice about freezing the remaining demons and blowing up the one coming up from behind. At their shocked looks, Piper just smiled and shrugged, "Surprise?"

Ali jumped out from one of the trees and ran over to Dean. "Dean? Come on, wake up. You told me not to die, and neither can you."

Large wound…and with no healing salve with them, there was nothing any of them could do. Even with the healing salve, most likely nothing could be done.

Eliot was taking the opportunity of the frozen demons to take them out, along with Finnick, Parker, Katniss, and Sophie. Wiress and Hardison were back to working on some problem with the dirt.

It was Piper that locked gazes with the young girl, and watched as she cut the cloth around the wound away. "What are you…?" Dean tried gasping out the question, but failed with a grimace.

"Shush." Piper watched as the girl placed a hand on the wound, and the wound slowly close on him, as an identical one opened on Ali.

It was as Dean was sitting up, and Ali had fallen back that any of the others happened to look over to see the wound close up on Ali's side.

"So…I'm not the only witch here, am I?" Hopefully, Piper's sisters had taken the orders to heart, and had actually left to the safe place.

"Witch? I thought they were extinct or servants of the Capitol." Katniss gasped out. Parker was looking at them curiously, but nothing more.

"You are, if you're caught." Piper explained to the girl. "And now? Even if I live to the end, I won't live to see my sisters again.

Dean was still staring at Ali, when she spoke up. "They won't let us leave the arena alive." The wound in her side was gone, the joys of magic.

"You can heal people?" Dean asked, wide eyed at her.

"And myself." Ali shrugged as though it was no big deal. "My games were a pain. I didn't have a way to stop self-healing in the arena. Nearly got caught a couple of times. Definitely caught now."

"Hey!" Hardison called for the people to bring their attention back to him. "I have a plan to stop the Careers."

Break:

It was a great plan, involving electricity. The Careers wouldn't know what hit them…


	7. Chapter 7

When Katniss shot the arrow, everything went into chaos.

Johanna had ripped out Katniss's tracker, and then ran away from the center to help fight off the rest of the Careers and whoever was left that was to keep attacking.

Lights flashing from a ship, reflecting off certain metals, and be absorbed by others. Was this another trick by the Capitol? Or something else?

On the Ship:

All of the tributes had to be knocked out. At least…all of the tributes that they had been able to get out of the arena.

Ford looked over their sleeping forms, and couldn't stop the frown covering his face. He still had people in that arena. He still had family left in that hole.

Specifically, a daughter in the form of Parker and a father in the form of Hannibal Smith.

Hardison:

They lost Parker.

Hardison tried to think of another way of putting it. Of trying to rationalize why she had been left behind, but he couldn't.

In the chaos of the attack, the three of them had been separated. Each of them had done their job, he had found a way out, and Eliot was protecting him. Parker had ordered him to, Hardison had later found out about that, and nearly exploded but for Eliot's face. Eliot was just as broken as he was feeling.

Eliot:

It had been his job to get them out safely. He had failed.

Parker. Hannibal. Johanna. Peeta. Ellen. Piper. Althea.

The last he had added, because they had joined their group, and revealed their secrets, to protect said group. He owed them a favor.

The most important person was at the front of the list. He knew she could take care of herself, but against the Capitol? On her own? What could they possibly be doing to her?

That wasn't even counting the people they hadn't been able to get out. The Capitol had Annie, and would have had Mags if it hadn't been for Annie's quick thinking and the timing of District 13.

Phoebe:

When Piper revealed their secret, Phoebe had grabbed the bag containing the book and Paige. It had been close, with Peace Keepers breaking down the door just as Paige orbed the two of them out of the building.

The surprise on the District 13's people when the two girls had appeared in light orbs was priceless. They had ran around, trying to figure out what was going on when one of the leaders, a man wearing brown robs, had approached them and asked for their names.

All Phoebe had to say was that they were the Charmed Ones to have whole place in an uproar. They hadn't believed them, but then the guy in robs, Leo he said to call him, had taken one look at the book and told everyone to back up.

Truthfully, Phoebe hadn't been sure what her and Paige would have done if they had attacked. Most of their powers were defensive. Paige could move things, sure, and heal things, but the strongest offensive power was found in Piper. Phoebe could see the future, the past, the present, and levitate herself. But what use would levitation have when they were cornered.

Piper was still in the Capitol's hands.

The Power of Three was broken again, and the two sisters that were safe didn't think they could handle another breakage, they had nearly been destroyed. With Paige, they had found a reason to keep fighting… But without Piper? Without Piper, the heart to fight for would be gone.

Break:

It took a combination of Katniss and Ford to get the leaders of District 13; Leo, Castiel, Lynn Phoenix, and President Coin to see the right way.

The fact that they had just received word that some of the captured people had died, may have had something to do with them coming up with a rescue plan.


	8. Chapter 8

Gloss Cosmetics. Cashmere Cosmetics. District 1 Victors and their families.

There was not one left of them. District 13 had thought the Capitol wouldn't kill off the remaining Victors in Victor Village is District 1. They had been wrong. The village had been flattened, along with everyone inside.

And Gloss and Cashmere? They had died in the arena.

District 2? All of the Victors and their families that had still been in their district. Brutus Hamaar and Enobaria Clike? Brutus had died in the arena. Enobaria? Living in the Capitol in the District 2 quarters.

Since Enobaria had been with the Careers, she had been considered an automatic innocent of the crimes, and so was freed, but with surveillance like usual.

District 3 only had three people to start out with. During the chaos, Wiress was killed in the struggle. Hardison and Beetee were in District 13, safe for now.

District 4's four Victors weren't in the same place. Three were in District 13, and physically safe; Sophie Devereaux, Mags, and Finnick. Annie Cresta? She hadn't made it to safety, and was now a prisoner of the Capitol.

Paige Matthews and District 5 Victor Phoebe Halliwell was safe in District 13. Rex Buckland had been killed by the Career team in the arena, no one was quite sure how. Victor Piper Halliwell? As of this moment, she was a prisoner of the Capitol. Most likely being tortured for information about the Allies.

Even though she knew nothing, but even so, she was witch, and would have been tortured for merely that if the Allies hadn't existed.

It was one thing to say that to themselves at night, the leaders, but another story to tell her two sisters, who both were biting at the bit to go on a rescue mission to save their sister.

Ellen Harvelle was one of the Victor-Tributes that was killed at the Capitol. They found out about her when her body had appeared on the screen for Panem to see. Bobby, Sam, and Jo were one of the first groups to be moved out, and for good reason. District 6 was one of the first places to be attacked. Dean was also safe…he had been close enough for someone on the ship to grab him.

District 7 Victor John "Hannibal" Smith fell in the arena during the chaos. No one was sure how he fell, but fall he did, and the Capitol used this fact as another way to slap the resistance in the face. It only enraged them. Nathan Ford had been at District 13, dealing with the nuances of the plan, and so he was safe from the Capitol. Johanna Mason? Another story, she was being held by the Capitol as a prisoner.

Before Sophie Devereaux went into the arena, she made Nate promise to get Cici's family to safety. They were safe…but the two Victors Woof and Cecelia? Not so much. Woof had died, protecting Katniss. Cecelia? She died during the blood bath.

District 9 Victor-Tribute Althea Wilde was being held by the Capitol on suspicion of corroboration with the Rebel forces, and of being a witch. Similar to Piper, she was being 'questioned' by the special Keepers. Colin "CHAOS" Mason? He was in a similar boat as Enobaria. He was being watched, but nothing more.

Apollo and Archie were safe in District 13. In the arena, Apollo just happened to be in the right spot to be found by the rebels and was taken on the ship. Archie? Ford had him picked up while everyone was distracted by the games. Parker was the one that had been left behind. A Peace Keeper that was sent into the arena nearly grabbed Hardison, and so Parker shoved him on the ship before attacking the Keeper. She hadn't had time to get on the ship herself before it took off.

District 11 B.A. Baracus was killed when trying to leave the district. A couple of Phoenix Witches had shimmered in to give him a lift, and it must have set off an alarm for the next moment they were being attacked by various rankings of Peace Keepers. B.A. couldn't let the two young witches killed, so he had held off the Peace Keepers while they had escaped. Mikhel? She had fallen by a Career's blade during the arena. Then there was Eliot…B.A.'s death he felt to be his fault. Parker's capture? He also blamed himself, because it had been his job to protect them. In District 13, he was the one being protected.

Peeta's family hadn't wanted to leave their Baker's Shop, but a bit of knock out juice and they were packed up to District 13. Glen was also safe, along with his family, be merely being told to get moving. Glen had helped in herding the people out. Katniss's family? They followed Glen and his family. Katniss was safe in District 13, but Peeta? Peeta was another prisoner of the Capitol.

Annie Cresta. Piper Halliwell. Johanna Mason. Althea Wilde. Parker. Peeta.

Six people, being held and tortured by the Capitol. Something had to be done to get them out.

Capitol:

Each of them could hear the other's screams, and it was probably designed like that for them.

Piper and Althea were getting the worst of it, if the level and amount of screaming that could be heard by the others were any indication. They were being questioned about any knowledge about other witches. The both of them weren't telling, and at this point? The interrogators just wanted to listen to their screams.

Next came Johanna, Peeta, and Parker. Their screams were slightly less, but only slightly. The Capitol believed the three to have information about the Allies, despite how much they cried otherwise.

Annie Cresta had to listen to their screams, and be able to do nothing. She had been questioned, but not interrogated.

She heard when someone's screams was suddenly cut off. Annie cried, for she knew what that meant.

Ellen Harvelle had fallen, permanently.

After any of the sessions, they would talk, all of them. They talked about their dreams, hopes, and wishes. They all knew that the cards were stacked against them ever leaving their cages alive.

In Front of the Cameras:

They were taken out of the cages and dressed so that the markings from the torture devices wouldn't be seen from the screens.

The women put into dresses. The men? Into khakis and button ups.

They were set around in a circle, side by side, to show solidarity, the Capitol said.

The truth? So their joint chains couldn't be seen.

Parker, Annie, and Piper (with her hands covered in magic resistant gloves) were chained on one side. On the other side was Peeta, Althea, and Johanna. The one who chained them up thought to separate the witches, in case the two would come up with a plan.

The Capitol thought that their bases were covered, but they always forgot about certain things.

Secrets.

Family Secrets and Favors.

The Phoenix/Wilde family had owed a favor to the Murdock family.

The Murdock family had their own secrets, most specifically about how truly crazy they were. They weren't, but the truth? The Capitol would have killed them all.

A favor repaid, and as Althea kept one eye on the Peace Keepers and the other on Caesar Flickerman. They each said what they were supposed to say, with some going a bit off script to try to get a hidden point across.

Althea/Ali/Phoenix, whatever part of her was strongest, followed the script to the letter. She didn't fight or protest.

Till the end.

At the end, she did a reversal of the spell her grandmother had cast on the little Murdock girl when her abilities were proving to be flashier than her father's. A gift from her mother, Howling-Mad-Murdock told Rose Phoenix-Wilde all those years ago.

A spell, and a counter, that Rose had her granddaughter memorize.

The Counter she was saying at this very moment.

"Go, Parker!" Althea screamed as the Peace Keepers leapt to hold her down and to shut her up.

Parker didn't know what to do, but let the fear she felt consume her. Bright lights surrounded her and all of the people that were chained to her.

Parker was going to where she felt safe. She was going to her boys, and bringing whoever had been chained to her.

District 13:

The tributes were surrounding the screen, along with District 13's leaders.

Parker appeared in front of the group with a cry, "Hardison! Eliot!" Hardison ran to her, but Eliot stood guard from the leaders calling for testing.

"Back off!" He growled, and before anything could happen, the other tributes made a band with him, protecting the others.

Finnick held onto Annie, even if the chains were still in place.

On screen. Ali was pushed down under bodies, and the remaining three were dragged off.

Phoebe and Paige grabbed their sister and held her tight. They were together again.

"We're getting the others out." Ford commanded, and not a one thought to protest.

Break:

The plan was flawless.

The Phoenix Clan sent a few people to counter the spells protecting the Capitol, and as lifts for the others.

The Hunters sent Dean, and Rufus. The other Hunters had started being picked off, and so all of them that would come had been brought from District 6. Sam had wanted to go, but with a vote from Dean, he was told to stay and help teach the District 13 Army (which was more of a hodge podge of people) on how to fight against the black eyes.

The bust into the place, and dragged them out.

The Capitol had no more of their people to hold against them.


	9. Chapter 9

The Allies had the Mockingjay.

The Allies had the Power of Three.

The Allies had the Phoenix Clan.

The Allies had the Hunters.

Who didn't they have? The Peace Keepers, weapons, and numbers.

But, this time, they finally had magic on their side.

This time, they were going to attack the Capitol with all they had, until one or other fell.

Break:

Multiple teams going through multiple holes in the system. It was considered a multifaceted attack, with most of the attacks coming from the outside, with only one team taking out from within.

The Victors, that passed the requirements, voted to go. Which meant Phoebe, Piper, Sophie, Parker, Eliot, Dean, Finnick, Althea, Peeta, and Katniss were allowed. Johanna? Her fears of water (cursed Capitol) kept her out of the ranking.

Sam was forced to stay behind, and help protect the District 13 civilians, the same with Jo and Paige. They didn't believe that lie, but knew that their siblings were just trying to keep them as safe as possible. Even if it was highly annoying and they could take care of themselves.

The fought through the barriers. Together.

Being attacked by the dogs from the games, Parker orbed a group of them to topside. They had already received from Hardison that the Capitol knew where they were,

Katniss, Finnick, Dean, Piper, and Althea stayed below. Parker could only lift so many people at once, and so the plan was to take a group up while another group fought down below until Parker could get back to them.

The dogs attacked. They fought back.

Darklighters came, as well, with the dogs.

Good thing that the one with whitelighter blood was topside for the moment, but that meant that the group in the underground had to take them out before Parker got back to grab them.

Finnick fell, but not for long.

"Cover me!" Althea yelled as she dove for where Finnick had fallen. The joy of having her magic, was how she was a dual sword. She killed the group within range with a touch of one hand, and placed the other on Finnick.

Dean took out the dogs with salt, fire, and holy water. Along with a pair of blessed knives that the Halliwell sisters had blessed for each fighter.

Piper? She waved her hands and blew up the darklighters within reach.

Katniss? She was fighting the long range attack, since the darklighters that came preferred their crossbows over close distance.

At one point, darklighter came face to face with the one person fighting with an ability traditionally a darklighter ability. "Touch of Death? I'm immune."

Piper blew him up before the girl had time to give a response. Piper nodded to Althea, and she nodded back. Family secrets. Family favors.

Parker finally orbed back in, to orb them up into the city.

Where there was chaos. At least between the Peace Keepers and the Allies. The Capitol Civilians? Nowhere to be found. Most likely hiding in their houses while the fighting happened in their streets, believing that the Peace Keepers would take care of it.

They were wrong.

The Allies were winning. The Peace Keepers were being split from the demons that were possessing them, thanks to the training that the hunters had been able to give.

The other demons were quickly being taken care of, thanks to the Phoenix Clan, two of the Power of Three, and the many weapons that had been blessed by them.

Katniss made it to President Snow's house, and saw the children standing inside the fence.

She watched as one of the Allied ships landed to gather the children to safety.

She recognized a familiar looking head of hair leaving the ship. Prim.

By Prim was Jo, Sam, and Paige.

She should have known that leaving them behind wasn't going to be an option.

The world was moving in slow motion as the bomb slowly dropped.

"Prim!"

"Sam! Jo!"

"Paige!"

The light faded and her eyes adjusted enough to make out the destruction, and when her ears finally stopped ringing, she was able to focus on the person pulling on her arm.

"Katniss!" Prim was there. Prim was alive. "Paige orbed us out. We have to help the kids!"

It was at that moment that Katniss could feel relief. Her sister was alive.

Looking over at Dean, who was holding both Sam and Jo close to him, she understood.

Paige, Phoebe, and Piper were holding onto each other, and she understood.

With a look at Piper and Dean, she knew that they understood as well.

If their younger siblings had been killed, there would have been nothing to stand in their way of taking out their killer, and doing everything to bring them back.

They would have become the very things that they fought against, or they would have broken.

Phoebe was the one who looked up, and nodded to them.

Whoever had done that, had done it with the belief that they would have broken.

Snow was going to die.


	10. Chapter 10

There was a decision to be made, that President Coin brought before the surviving Victors.

Do they allow the Games to be continued but with the Capitol children as the tributes? Or do they just do without it?

A vote, with whatever the majority happened to be, to be the deciding fate.

District 2 Enobaria. District 3 Alec Hardison. District 3 Beetee. District 4 Sophie Devereaux. District 4 Mags. District 4 Finnick Odair. District 4 Annie Cresta. District 5 Piper Halliwell. District 5 Phoebe Halliwell. District 6 Bobby Singer. District 6 Dean Winchester. District 7 Nathan Ford. District 7 Johanna Mason. District 9 Colin "CHAOS" Mason. District 9 Althea Phoenix Wilde. District 10 Apollo. District 10 Parker. District 11 Eliot Spencer. District 12 Haymitch Abernathy. District 12 Peeta Mellark. District 12 Katniss Everdeen.

Twenty-one people to decide the fate of generations of children. Children of enemies that had chosen to side with the demons that had enslaved them. Twenty-one people to determine how this new nation, created out of flames, would go forward.

"No." District 4 Annie Cresta emphatically gave her opinion, and thus the first vote was thrown. "They're children."

At her side, District 4 Finnick had an arm wrapped about Annie's shoulders, and nodded his agreement. "We can't be like them."

District 9 Colin 'CHAOS' Mason laughed, but it held no mirth. "Why shouldn't they? They forced us, why not force them to feel the same?"

With an inebriated laugh, filled with a type of heartache that didn't ever seem to fade, District 7 Nathan Ford gave his vote, "Make them feel the pain of losing a child, like they made us feel time and time again."

Two four, and two against. A tie for a moment, but just a moment.

"We fought so no more children would die." District 4 Sophie Devereaux, curled up against Ford's side, gave her opinion with a bit of a whip in her voice.

"Then they shouldn't have killed ours." District 7 Johanna Mason bit out, "For it." The torture that the capitol had put her through was still fresh in her mind.

"No." District 3 Alec Hardison said from his place beside District 10 Parker. "We can't kill any more people."

District 4 Mags gave her opinion in a soft tone. "I wish to say no." The older woman told the group, "I want to say no more death, but I remember seeing so many boys and girls go into that arena, and even the few I saw come out, weren't the same." It seemed to take physical effort to say the rest, "Powers forgive me, but I say yes."

"My brother would say no." District 6 Dean Winchester shrugged. "But I'm not my brother. Saving people, hunting things, that's the family business. To me? They're no better than things."

At this, District 6 Bobby Singer was shocked. "Dean? What's the matter with you, boy? They're people too. You saw what happens when people are possessed. You know they had no choice."

A sneer covering his face, Dean spoke, "That's the thing, Bobby. Most of the people? They chose to be possessed. I saw the records. It was a 'mutual beneficial arrangement'. They chose to make the deals."

"But the children, Dean?" Dean refused to respond to Bobby, and so Bobby gave his vote, "No. They've been through enough."

Another tie, five to five. Eleven more people left to vote.

"No." District 3 Beetee, silent during this time, finally gave voice to his opinion. "Wiress died to protect the Mockingjay, to protect hope. Children are the hope…" His voice mumbled off into something one he himself could hear.

District 5 Piper Halliwell, she voted a way she wouldn't have earlier, "They killed my sister." An audience on her, she took a breath, "And I know…I know that most of the people there weren't coerced into acting the way they did." She looked around the group, "They acted like demons, because they could. Because they have the power. We have the power now. So yes, at least for a time."

"Piper?" District 5 Phoebe Halliwell questioned her sister. "Prue died in an accident."

A laugh, another mirthless laugh to fill up the now silent room. "They ripped her apart, Phoebe. And their children? I saw a group of them laughing along with them."

"They're still children." Phoebe murmured.

"And a demon is a demon, no matter their age." Piper remarked back.

Phoebe nodded, having to vanquish Cole during the fighting because he was definitely on the Capitol's side, no matter what promises he had made, had definitely made her question her view of the world. "Alright. Paige would say no. But okay. Like you said, just for a time."

"I don't want anyone to end up like me…" District 10 Parker murmured to herself, and in the silence, to the group as a whole. "So, no. No more games."

District 10 Apollo smiled at his fellow district member. "Why not? You're awesome. And to the vote? Again, why not? They made us, so why not them?'

"I follow my Thief." District 11 Eliot Spencer with a one armed hug around Parker. "And my Hacker," a quick squeeze of Hardison's hand and he looked around the room. "The Capitol made me do things that I'd prefer to never remember. Mostly for Damien Moreau, but for a few others as well. But the kids are kids, and shouldn't be punished because of the mistakes of their fathers and mothers. No to the games."

Eight to eight. Five more votes to go.

District 12 Peeta Mellark, the boy who could move the crowds with words, and unite them under the Mockingjay, looked about the room in a type of outrage. "They are children. Never."

"We were once children." District 12 Katniss Everdeen gave an opinion, in her mind the bomb landing on those kids and how close her sister had been to being killed, again. "Yes." She ignored the look Peeta was sending her way, with a focus on the image in her mind.

A laugh, not so dissimilar from Nathan Ford's, came out of District 12 Haymitch Abernathy's mouth. "They killed my family, my loves, and used me." Another drink, "But I can't…Powers that be, I can't. I can't be the one to vote others to go into that hell hole. No."

"I'm still in their age group." District 9 Althea 'Ali' Wilde muttered just loud enough to be heard. "I see them laugh. Happy. Not knowing what their parents did to me behind closed doors." She had curled father into herself, as though in pain. "It makes me angry, that they're able to still smile when I can't. It hurts, knowing that they got the chance to have a childhood, when I was born with a target on my back. It hurts, and I hate them. I hate every being that crawled out of this place. I want them to understand what it is like to be hurt, just a fraction of how I was."

Ten to ten. One vote left, a vote to decide.

A flash of sharp teeth, sharpened by the Capitol to fit with an image, District 2 Enobaria stood up and with a slap of the table, gave the deciding vote, "Why not?"

Break:

The Mockingjay was given the chance to execute President Snow.

In the crowd, somewhere, was her mother and sister, saved just by a split moment and luck that Paige had known what to do, and had the moment of clarity to react like she had.

Katniss Everdeen marched up to the cowering man, who didn't seem to be cowering all that much. "You nearly killed my sister."

Blood dripping teeth seemed to make up his entire face as he smiled up at her, "Why was she on the front lines?"

Katniss walked back to her position, the center of the 21 remaining Victors. She pulled back her bow, but his words kept running through her mind.

Why was her sister on the front lines?

Why were the three younger siblings of four separate Victors in the front lines? When, before those same Victors volunteered to be the frontal assault, it came with the promise that the siblings would remain safe in District 13?

A look at a place of honor above Snow sat President Coin, blood thirst in her gaze.

The monsters in Panem weren't just supernatural, but also human.

Human greed.

She pulled back the string, and let it fly.

Right into Coin.

Snow's laughter was quickly cut off by a wave of Piper's hand.

Before a single act could be performed in retribution, the 20 other Victors were surrounding Katniss, being a human shield for her.

Around the Victors came the families that were either related to the Victors here, or the Victors that had fallen. With the families came friends, and fellow fighters that had watched the people in the circle fight their way back.

District 13 could get retribution, if only they were willing to fight another war. A war, this time, with their numbers split and against the other districts.

They weren't.

And so no retribution was sought.

And the leaders that came afterwards, learned from this moment, that their power came from the Heroes that fought, and the people that loved them.

Surrounded by these people that she had looked at with indifference; Peeta's hand in hers; her sister within sight.

Katniss Everdeen realized something that never thought of before.

These people were her family.

Not a family of blood, but by choice.

Cause, as Hunter Bobby Singer is so fond of saying, "Family don't end with blood, boy!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Katniss and Peeta:**

Their marriage was long in District 12, where they kept their home. Next door lived Haymitch, Katniss's mom, and little Prim. As the years passed, they had two beautiful children, a boy and girl for them to love.

They taught their children how to protect themselves, but overall on how love can win a war.

Glen was a lackey of the new leaders, but Katniss and Peeta couldn't bring themselves to truly care that much. They loved one another, they loved their family, and they loved their life together.

 **Haymitch Abernathy, Mrs. Everdeen, and Prim:**

Haymitch thought of Katniss as his daughter, and Peeta as his son as well. Through Katniss, he met her mother, and something he never thought to feel again came about. His drinking never stopped, but he did drink less.

Prim wasn't like Katniss, and that was something that Haymitch learned really fast the longer his spent time in the Everdeen women's lives.

He learned to love the girl. He learned to love her mother. He learned, he learned how to let himself love again.

 **Enobaria and 'CHAOS':**

Who would have thought? Neither one of these two characters, but their time in the Capitol and under the Capitol's watch did bring them closer together.

Neither one would ever be normal, but how much fun was normal? Enobaria eventually had her teeth fixed so she wouldn't accidently cut herself with them. 'CHAOS'? He started a few hobbies, mostly involving computers along with a weird obsession with explosives.

 **Sophie Devereaux and Nathan Ford:**

The woman with a thousand faces could never settle with just one, and Nathan Ford was fine with that.

A Mastermind would always have trouble settling into the mundane, and Sophie Devereaux was fine with that.

They eventually married. Eventually, much to the laughter of Hardison, Parker, and Eliot. It was a big wedding, fit for a queen, fit for the woman with a thousand faces.

With hormones running wild, it was of no surprise when Sophie found herself pregnant. Nathan was nervous throughout the pregnancy, nearly to the point that Sophie was about to strangle the overbearing man.

She had a beautiful baby girl that Nate taught to play chess.

She had a thousand faces, just like her mother, but a mind always unraveling puzzles, just like her father.

Her many aunts and uncles spoiled the girl, and taught her many tricks that a respectable society would frown at.

But who cares what the respectable society wants? The girl was happy.

 **Eliot, Parker, and Hardison:**

A trio. An oddity in ways, only made odder by the three that made up the parts.

Each of them kept their homes in each of their respective districts, and they just travelled, together, between the houses. Home was where the three of them were.

They had three kids, two boys and girl. Adopted from the many orphans that were around Panem. As Parker put it, "Mini us!" before proceeding to teach them everything she knew about picking pockets, infiltration, and overall how to be a thief. Especially the smallest boy.

Hardison made it his self-imposed job to teach them everything he knew about hacking. One of the boys really had a talent with it.

Eliot wanted them to know how to protect themselves, and so he taught them everything he knew. The girl was the one with the most skill when it came to defense, but like the others, she learned the basics of the others.

The three kids were raised with Sophie and Nate's little girl. The four of them used their skills to cause trouble, but their parents and extended family always had a smile for them, and something to curb their mischievousness to.

 **Beetee:**

The walls were silent without Wiress around. The silence drove the walls closer and closer inwards, but the sounds of the children out in the yard would draw him back out.

Wiress would have enjoyed the sounds, the lights, and the love that came after the storm.

She would have…and Beetee does. He loves the children from his district, and from the other districts that had moved in. He taught the kids at the school about technology and engineering. He told them stories, and learned more stories to keep track of.

His favorite kid was the one Parker affectionately called "Little Alec", but you wouldn't know it from how he doted on the children around him.

 **Bobby, Jo, Sam, and Dean, Althea tagging along:**

Jo always had a crush on Dean, and at first that caused problems when Dean brought Althea home with him.

With a conversation accentuated with fists, Jo finally calmed down enough to listen to the girl holding her head into the ground. Jo learned that Dean and Althea were friends, who were thrown together by the Capitol.

Jo took a chance and went after Dean when she got older. Dean was surprised, but with a lap full of Jo and threats in his ears from his friend Althea, brother Sam, and Uncle Bobby, he couldn't complain too much.

She had his back on hunts, along with Sam. Althea tagged along and helped rid Panem of the creatures that kept rearing their head to attack the humans that didn't know how to fight back. Sam enjoyed his schooling more than his brother did, and started taking over Bobby's position, letting the older man take more breaks.

Using her new found power of shimmering, Althea gave them lifts, along with popping in to help Parker out with any supernatural problems her and her team happened to run into, along with providing back up whenever the Charmed Ones needed her to.

 **Johanna Mason & Apollo:**

Another match that no one expected, but one that seemed to work for the two of them.

Apollo wooed the woman with stolen gifts that he grabbed from others, and her? She caught his eye by standing her ground.

Apollo had a thing for competent women, ask Parker. He hit on her before she held him over a building with only a thin rope stopping his plummet to death. She had held a knife very close to that rope, and he got the idea.

They didn't have any children, but spent time traveling around. Johanna really enjoyed meeting up with Katniss, while Apollo enjoyed heading over to Parker's to help her train one of her minions.

 **Finnick and Annie, Mags too.**

Finnick and Annie had their baby in spring, a bouncing baby boy with a wide smile and bright eyes. Annie had trouble staying with reality, but fought with everything to stay with her family.

Mags watched the child while the parents would go out, glad to know that they had created a world in which this child wouldn't have to fear being drawn from a bowl and put into an arena to fight to the death against other children.

The small family of four had an open door policy for their extended family, as well. They were also the family most likely to throw 'family reunions' for everyone to be called to come to.

 **Piper, Phoebe, and Paige:**

The three sisters moved back into their family home outside of Victor Village. The old manor was theirs, not the house that the Capitol had given them.

Overtime, whitelighter Leo's persistence broke through Piper's resistance, and they married. They had two beautiful boys, and brown haired girl that looked so much like her mother.

Phoebe? After a lot of trials and errors, she finally fell, completely, irrevocably in love with a Coop the Cupid. Yes, Cupids exist, in District 13, and that is where she found the man to teach her to love again. They had three beautiful daughters, each one of them with as much fire, and power, as their mother.

Paige? She learned her powers, and her place. It took her a while to learn, but when she did, she knew what she wanted to do. She met her equal in a mortal, a man that was able to accept her for who she was, without holding back anything. His name was Henry, and they had a set of twin girls and a little boy affectionately called Jr.

The three of them fought evil, created things, and loved their families.

 ** _Break:_**

All of them had their separate families, but they always knew they had chosen one another to be family, as well.

Once a year, normally much more often, all of the families would get together, to remember, that they had fought against the monster and won.

There was no need for secrets, and no need for a Capitol to be overthrown, because they had already shined light into the darkest of corners and overthrew the cruelest of rulers.


End file.
